TaiChung

8D7N in Taiwan- Episode 1 (Miyahara宫原眼科 - Feng Jia Night Market 逢甲夜市)

Hi all, the long awaited Taiwan Trip blog post is finally here. This time, it was an 8D7N family trip instead of a solo trip like what I did in October last year. I actually booked the ticket last year around August and cannot be more excited as I counted down the days to the trip. Not only we were going to be on a vacation together for the first time after so long, but it was also because I haven't seen them since December '16. So the Taiwan trip was actually like a family gathering as well.

Before starting, I would like to give you some background as I find these information important and usually absent in some other travel blogs when I did my research.

First, this trip was taken in March, this is a very good month to visit Taiwan because of the cooling weather. For the entire week, the weather was about an average of 20 Degree Celsius. It was mainly sunny but with some rain when were in Taipei. My dad was just telling me how he liked the cooling weather in Taiwan when I was back in Penang last week.

Second, we actually hired a driver to bring us around (except for Taipei part). As we planned to cover quite a number of places, and with a pax of 6, we all agreed that getting a van would be much more convenient. If you have senior citizen or children with you along the trip, I strongly recommend that you opt for this as it could be quite exhausting if you do the free-and-easy trip where you travel around on your own (aka public transport).

Without further ado, let me bring you to the Day 1 and Day 2 which were around the Tai Chung 台中 and Nantou County 南投.

Day 1 Taoyuan Airport 桃园机场 -Tai Chung 台中

Miyahara宫原眼科
Feng Jia Night Market 逢甲夜市

From Taoyuan Airport, we headed straight to Tai Chung and the journey took about 2 hours.

I actually didn’t know about Miyahara before, but we came here as we read some good online reviews and it was quite near to the place we were staying. Miyahara is famous for its' rich variety of ice-cream flavours. The price of ice-cream ranges from NTD90, NTD150 and NTD225 for single, double and triple scoops respectively (with toppings).

Miyahara 宫原眼科

地址：

台湾台中市中區中山路20號
到达方式：

乘坐近台铁到达台中站，步行约5分钟
营业时间：

10:00~22:00
电话：

0422271927
网址：
http://www.miyahara.com.tw

When we first reached, we saw the looooooong queue. Maybe it was because we went on a weekend. Nevertheless while waiting, I brought my parents in to take a look at the shop.

So this shop is older than Malaysia, lol, established in 1927.

According to this blog, this was an eye clinic built by a Japanese optometrist- Miyahara (Gong Yuan) during the time of the Japanese occupation. It was the largest eye clinic in Taichung at that time. I think the most unique thing about this shop is the interior design. Check out the pictures and you’ll know what I mean. It kinda looks a movie scene of a magical school. Eastern version of Harry Potter, haha! Other than the interior, their products are also a selling point. You can see that a lot of effort was put into the packaging. All of them are specially designed. They sell everything from ice-cream, tea, coffee, biscuit to chocolate etc.

See how cute the packaging is

Some chocolate maybe?

I wonder if the drawers open by themselves?

Wedding stuff

I was casually talking to the staff and she was very friendly. She quickly asked me if I wanted to get some souvenirs. They were really pretty but I wasn't into buying these kinda things (paiseh). But she did mention something that caught my attention- they provide delivery service. Meaning, after a customer paid, the shop could arrange to send the items to the customer's hotel (for the last day in Taiwan). As many tourists who come here are usually not on their last day of vacation in Taiwan, I must admit that this is actually a brilliant idea. Many tourists tend to buy souvenirs on the last night because they do not want to bring the things with them throughout the whole trip. So this could be a pull factor for the customers since the trouble of carrying the items around is solved.

credits to- http://bit.ly/2qwsSln

Tadaaaa, finally the ice-cream is here.

Taste verdict: Worth a try, the ice-cream was delicious together with the other toppings. But then again, you could easily get something similar in those hipster cafes.

So should you pay here a visit? Honestly I think it is unnecessary if you come solely for the food. But if you are here to check out the interior or to get the souvenirs, then yes.

After this, we checked in and then came out for some legit food at Feng Jia Night Market.

Feng Jia Night Market 逢甲夜市

Basically, the food that appears in my blog are those that I would recommend others to eat (unless otherwise stated). So it's kinda filtered already, this also means the taste would be at least average to great.

Entrance to Feng Jia Market

Look at the crowd

First up, this guy caught my attention already. I like how small but complete his store is. The picture of the waffle is really alluring. I ordered the cheese waffle for NTD50.

Would love to have my own little coffee brewing corner like this one

Next up, this 大肠包小肠 meaning "small sausage in a big sausage". I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this! The flavour is really rich and very filling as well.

MUST-TRY! 大肠包小肠

It was literally this crowded

When I was doing research for this trip, I saw these scallops said WE MUST TRY. So naturally when we saw this, we ordered. However, I think it didn't live up to my expectation lo. After bbq-ing them, the scallops shrunk so much. But I would also recommend you to try because of how special it is.

I didn't manage to take a photo of this stall, but I can tell you that this bowl of noodle was very delicious. It is about two stalls away from the 大肠包小肠. It tasted something like the Kimchi Instant Noodles. If you are into those, then chances are you'll like this too.

These BBQ skews are worth to try as well!

Another MUST-TRY that I have to bring up is this Papaya Milk drink, it was very very fresh and instantly quenched out thirst. I usually drink honey dew or watermelon, but this time I vote for this papaya drink!

MUST TRY!! Papaya Milk drink. Make sure you don't purchase from a random shop, make sure it's the 专卖店

My mom took this for me, thanks mummy!

This 葱油饼 was not bad too, actually this is a dish that is famous everywhere in Taiwan.

Hello doggy

Last but not least, we went to a shop nearby where we stayed for some beef noodles. After the trip, I felt that the (Taiwan) beef noodles that I have all along perceived is not exactly what they have in Taiwan. The soup is usually not very thick and the portion is really small.